WATCH: David Tennant and Aidan Turner lead all-star cast for 'utterly abhorrent' drama Rivals

Virgin Radio

26 Jun 2024, 14:09

David Tennant and Poldark’s Aidan Turner are just two of the many big names who star in Disney+ Rivals.

The eight-part show - set to hit the streamer later this year - will also star The Inbetweeners’ Emily Atack, EastEnders’ Danny Dyer, and The Crown’s Oliver Chris.

Today (26th June), a first trailer for the all-star adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s scandal-filled Rutshire Chronicles book was released, giving a first glimpse at all the cast in action.

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Rivals tells the story of power-grabbing social elites in 1980s England in the context of the “ruthless world” of independent television. And as the trailer goes to show, the dastardly deals and romantic entanglements of the series' main characters will provide plenty of shock factor as well as wit in the new drama.

In the series, Tennant stars as Lord Tony Baddingham, the controller of Corinim Television and adversary to Alex Hassell’s dashing ex-Olympian turned MP Rupert Campbell-Black.

Meanwhile Turner will star as TV presenter and journalist Declan O’Hara, who finds himself caught in the crossfire of Tony and Rupert’s squabble.

Katherine Parkinson, Bella Maclean and Nafessa Williams will all also star in the series, as will Catriona Chandler, Rufus Jones, Lisa McGrillis, Luke Pasqualino, Claire Rushbrook and Victoria Smurfit.

The series has been adapted for TV by Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Laura Wade alongside the series’ episodic writers, who include Sex Education’s Sophie Goodhart. Lead director on the series is Ted Lasso’s Elliot Hegarty.

Teasing what fans can expect from the series during an appearance on Virgin Radio’s The Graham Norton Show with Waitrose last year, Katherine Parkinson opened up about how much she enjoyed spending time with her fellow castmates.

“There isn’t a single one that isn’t really fun,” she said, adding: “We’ve done a lot of the group scenes and then you go, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do when I have to do acting with just, sort of, one person?’

“But a lot of my stuff is with Danny Dyer, so it definitely isn’t going to be boring!” she joked.

The Rivals will be available to stream on Disney+ later this year.